[steven]

Is that for real??? We're just talking about written chinese/japanese, right? I'm not sure about that if you're talking about spoken language. I've heard that if a Japanese looks at a Chinese news paper, they'll get the drift of it... but as far as talking goes, Japanese people seem as lost as I am with Chinese (granted I'm not trying to learn it, and I presume they aren't either).

But ya, sakae yellow, that is amazing that you know so many languages. I generally agree with you about the idea that if you can ask what a word means in the language you're learning, and have it explained to you in the language you're learning, then you are fluent (or on the road there). That's when learning in a second language comes into play. That's what I'm loving right now about having learned the Japanese that I have... I get to talk to people and learn about concepts and ideas that don't even exist (at least to my knowledge) in my American English world. I can only imagine what that would be like if I knew 3 or 4 languages like you sakaeyellow.